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Sunday, 20 May 2012

Emun Elliott: filming 'Prometheus' felt like being on another planet

Scots TV hunk
Emun Elliott was obsessed with the Alien films — now he’s living the dream in
Ridley Scott’s blockbuster Prometheus.

The
28-year-old — best known as gay Ritchie in Comedy Central hit Threesome — is
starring alongside Hollywood babe Charlize Theron in the prequel to sci-fi
classic Alien.

It also
features telly hardman Idris Elba and Inglourious Basterds actor Michael
Fassbender. And the big-screen epic — expected to be a massive hit for
legendary director Scott — is one of 2012’s most eagerly-anticipated releases.

Alien fanatic
Emun, from Edinburgh, plays spaceship pilot Chance — and he was in dreamland
the minute he stepped onto the £65million movie’s spectacular set.

Emun
admitted: “That was the highlight. I’d seen the Alien movies and it felt like
we had these landmark shoes to fill.

“There was a
real feeling of anxiousness and trepidation at first, but I remember Charlize
saying she was nervous too.

“Once the
cameras started rolling though, you realise that it’s just like any other job.

“But yeah,
just wandering about in a space suit with a big globe over your head was cool.

“You’d get so
far onto these massive sets that you felt like you were actually on another
planet or a spaceship.”

Last year,
Emun raved about Oscar winner Charlize, 36, in an interview with The Scottish
Sun.

He said:
“Charlize was lovely, just a proper movie star. She was gorgeous, brilliant and
knows exactly what she’s doing.”

But he also
struck up a friendship with co-star Idris — famed for his roles in BBC series
Luther and US drama The Wire.

Emun
revealed: “Idris is not only one of the sexiest men I’ve ever encountered but
also one of the coolest. I learned an awful lot working with him.

“I worked
primarily with Idris, Michael and Benedict Wong.

“Benedict and
I play the pilots Idris plays the captain, so it was a sort of threesome.

“It was
straight forward — the director gave us free reign to do whatever we wanted to
do and gave us nudges here and there.”

Prometheus
hits cinemas in June.

Emun has
become a well-known face on telly starring in Threesome, Comedy Central’s first
British sitcom. He has also appeared in Sky Atlantic’s fantasy series Game Of
Thrones and BBC3 lesbian drama Lip Service.

He played
bad-boy architect and womaniser Jay in the raunchy Scots show and viewers saw
him exit last month when his character got a new job in London.

Emun joked:
“I was hoping I’d leave the show in a more epic and exciting way. I was hoping
to fall out of a window mid-orgy, but instead he just says ‘I’m off to London’.
Hey-ho.”

In Game Of
Thrones his on-screen alter ago had his tongue sliced off. Emun said: “I’d love
to return one day but my character lost his tongue so I wouldn’t have any
lines. It would be an incredible performance or a ridiculous one!”

A 2005
graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Emun is getting
plenty of screen time later this year. Threesome returns for a second series
and he will also appear in BBC drama The Ladies’ Paradise.

Next year,
the actor returns to the big screen in Filth, the movie based on Irvine Welsh’s
novel.

He said: “My
character basically goes around sleeping with beautiful women and killing
Catholic crusaders on the back of the horse. The director Chris Smith likes to
take things to extremes so there’s loads of gore and lots of sex — it was a bit
of a dream!”

The show,
which airs on Channel 4 later this year, is based on the novel by English
author Kate Mosse and boasts Scott as executive producer.

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